


The Sorting

by icewhisper



Series: A Slytherin, A Hufflepuff, And A Ravenclaw Walk Into A Bar [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Harry Potter AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23332603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: First step: Stare at the castle in awe.Second step: Stick an ugly hat on your head and figure out what colors you’ll be wearing for the next seven years.
Relationships: Gracia Hughes & Maes Hughes, Gracia Hughes & Maes Hughes & Roy Mustang, Gracia Hughes & Roy Mustang, Maes Hughes & Roy Mustang
Series: A Slytherin, A Hufflepuff, And A Ravenclaw Walk Into A Bar [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668034
Comments: 12
Kudos: 67





	The Sorting

**_Maes Hughes_ **

He hadn’t fully been prepared for this, he thought nervously when Professor Weasley led them into a giant hall and down the middle of the room. Long tables on either side forced them to crowd in close to each other as the other students stared at them. Some stared with more interest than others, he noticed, but there was a trend. One table full of green and silver ties to the far left. Another of blue and silver beside that. To their right, students dressed in red and gold. Farthest to the right, yellow and black.

Slytherin. Ravenclaw. Gryffindor. Hufflepuff.

He’d only vaguely remembered the names after Professor Truman had explained them, because he and his parents had still been in shock, and he hadn’t exactly listened very closely to Professor Weasley when he led them inside. He  _ had _ listened to Gracia, though, and he sent her a thankful smile she probably wouldn’t understand as the woman at the center of the head table stood.

“To our first years, welcome to Hogwarts,” she said, smiling at them, “and to our returning students, welcome back. We’re all sad to see the summer end, but I know we’re also just as eager to tuck into the feast, so I will keep this brief.”

_ Feast? _ Roy mouthed at him.

Maes shrugged. It sounded overly fancy to him, too.

The woman – Headmistress Mole, he remembered reading on his letter – folded her hands in front of her, pale fingers laced over shimmering silver robes. She had her hair done up like his mom did when his dad took her out for their anniversary; hair all curled and pinned on the side with a pretty clip that caught the candlelight. She had smile lines, he thought as she came around the table, and felt relieved about it.

She came to a stop next to a stool with an old hat perched on top. “As Professor Weasley explained, when you come to Hogwarts, you’re sorted into one of four houses. The House you’re sorted into will be your home. You’ll take classes with your housemates, live with them, and hopefully, find friends that will be with you the rest of your days.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gracia shoot Roy a grin.

“Hogwarts has used this Sorting Hat since it opened. Our founders charmed it to find the best place for you and, like the students before you, it’s your turn.” She gave them all a gentle smile, but her eyes seemed to linger on certain kids. The more nervous ones, maybe. “When you hear your name, please come up, take a seat, and the Hat will be placed on your head. Whatever House it yells will be your home for your tenure at Hogwarts.”

“How are we going to know which is which?” a blonde girl shouted from the crowd.

Headmistress Mole chuckled fondly. “They’ll be the ones screaming loudest.”

Then, the Hat’s brim opened like a mouth and it started  _ singing _ .

He stared at it without comprehension for half the song and at about the time it started singing about Gryffindor, turned to Roy and Gracia with a concerned look on his face.

“Roy,” he said slowly, “I don’t think you’re the only one having a stroke.”

Mouth still hanging open, Roy gave him a bewildered thumbs up.

“Is that thing  _ sentient _ ?” Gracia marveled.

“ _ That’s _ your question?” Roy sputtered at her as Maes let out a half-hysterical bark of laughter.

The blonde girl – Elizabeth Auburn – ended up being one of the first ones sorted. She was outspoken, but she seemed to clam up as she made her way to the stool and let Headmistress Mole put the Hat on her head. She jumped, startled, after a moment, but even though the Hat seemed to move on its own, he couldn’t hear anything. A minute went by before the brim opened wide and it shouted, “HUFFLEPUFF!”

The whole hall began to applaud, but the one to the far right with its yellow and black ties whooped in excitement. The first Hufflepuff of the year, he noted as the Hat was plucked off her head and she hurried down to join her housemates.

Ravenclaw.

Gryffindor.

Gryffindor.

Hufflepuff.

Three students that he thought may have been triplets with their dark curls and caramel skin got sorted into Slytherin in quick succession.

He whispered quietly to Roy and Gracia as they made their way down the list and the crowd around them began to thin. Gracia reminded them of each house’s traits since, thankfully, Maes hadn’t been the only one so dumbfounded, he’d missed the song the Hat sung.

“I wonder what I’m going to get sorted into,” Gracia said and Roy and Maes shared a knowing look.

Then, his name got called and for as much as he thought he’d be calm when it was his turn, the nerves did nothing but get worse. He gave Roy and Gracia both a shaky smile before he forced himself to move. Step. Step. Step. Stairs. Stool. Turn. Sit. Hat.

“I haven’t had one of you in a while,” a voice in his head mused and he squawked in surprise. “It’s not very often anymore that we get any of Arthur’s children.” It hummed, considering, and he had a disturbing mental image of rags reaching into his mind to pull his brain apart so it could see what makes him tick. “It’s not nearly that graphic, my boy.”

He flushed.

“You’re loyal,” it observed. “A good mind, too. Always looking for answers, aren’t you? Yes… I think…” And it was like he could feel it leaving his head, almost like that little pop when he went from breathing through his nose to breathing through his mouth. “HUFFLEPUFF!”

**_Roy Mustang_ **

He and Gracia cheered along with the rest as Maes made his way over to the Hufflepuff table. His housemates met him with cheers and hand shakes that he returned easily before he took a seat in the aisle, facing the wrong way on the bench so he could watch easier.

It seemed fitting, Roy thought as someone clapped Maes so hard on the back, he almost lost his glasses. The other boy caught them with a laugh and let himself get caught up in conversation, but his attention flickered every so often.

“I think he’s listening for our names,” Gracia said when she noticed him looking. “Do you think either of us will go into Hufflepuff?”

Gracia wouldn’t, he was sure. If the Hat put her anywhere but Ravenclaw, he’d eat his alchemy book. Him, on the other hand… “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Not really sure where I’ll end up.”

“Gryffindor?” she guessed. “You’ve always been really brave whenever any of the customers at the bar get mean. You broke that one guy’s nose.”

He shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe.” He glanced over at her. “Are you worried about ending up alone?”

“A little,” she admitted, scuffing the toe of her shoe against the stone floor. “It’s not going to be like at the bar.”

“Less sex and booze,” he agreed, “but I don’t think it’ll be any quieter.”

She shot him an amused look – that one-eyebrow-up, one-sided smile thing that he  _ knew _ she’d picked up from Aunt Chris – and looked forwards again as a girl with coloring closer to his got sorted into Gryffindor. “You’ll still let me come visit you wherever you end up, right?”

She said it jokingly, but he could hear the nervousness underneath and he took her hand. “Not sure how it works around here,” he told her. “Not sure letting you in is gonna fly.”

“As if you care about their rules,” she scoffed, leaning into him. “You make rules do what you want them to.”

“They’re  _ suggestions _ , Gracia.”

She made a quiet noise of agreement, silent until they finally made it to the M’s. She squeezed his hand when they did and he squeezed right back, nervous.

Mahone. Ravenclaw.

Main. Gryffindor.

One boy – hair so blond, it was almost white – got sorted into Hufflepuff and started sputtering in outrage. “Do you know who I  _ am _ ?!”

“I’m quite aware, Mr. Malfoy,” Headmistress Mole said, “and so, apparently, does the hat. You can go join your classmates in Hufflepuff.”

Gracia hid her face in his shoulder to cover the snicker. He didn’t try to hide his grin, but he did shoot Maes a  _ good luck _ look when the boy joined the Hufflepuff table, face red with rage.

“Roy Mustang,” Headmistress Mole called and he sucked in a breath.

Gracia pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Good luck.”

He didn’t think he took a breath until he sat on the stool and only breathed, because the Hat dropping onto his head startled him.

“Another one, hm?” an old voice said and he bit back the kind of curse that would have had his Aunt Chris washing his mouth out with soap. “An ambitious one, aren’t you? Loyal to the ones you care about and smart, but you have your goals – alchemy  _ and _ magic – and you’re ready to do what you have to to make sure one doesn’t keep you from the other.”

He thought of his alchemy books packed away with his textbooks. Thought about Master Hawkeye and his determination to be the man’s pupil. The state alchemist exam he wanted to take as soon as his aunt would let him. Yeah, he thought, the Hat wasn’t too far off.

“Too ambitious for your own good, I wonder,” it mused and he scowled, offended. “There’s really no question about where you belong.” It made a clicking noise like it would if it had a tongue. “SLYTHERIN!”

**_Gracia Wagner_ **

She whooped excitedly for Roy as he made his way to the Slytherin table on the opposite side from where Maes had ended up. Cheers and handshakes met him all the same as the other Houses had greeted their new housemates, but the Slytherins were less rowdy about it. More refined, like their sisters had to be when a client needed a plus-one for a function.

They were a different crowd, she thought. Not all of them, she was sure, but the ones with their straight backs and chins tilted up, they reminded her of the high society-type she saw back home. The ones that always looked at the bar and at her family like they were somehow  _ less _ .

Roy was going to drive them all absolutely insane, she thought and couldn’t withhold the grin that curled her lips upward.

Headmistress Mole continued on and as Susan Hall got sorted to Ravenclaw, she realized she was alone now. Roy on one side of the room and Maes on the other. They were the only people here she  _ knew _ . She wasn’t afraid of meeting new people – she and her mom had moved around too much for that to still be an issue – but her safety zone was suddenly so much  _ smaller _ . She wouldn’t have her mother to run home to after a hard day. She couldn’t have the loud nights at the bar to calm her and offer comforting background noise while she did her homework. She wouldn’t have Aunt Chris teaching her and Roy to spin bottles and how to do a proper pour.

Suddenly, she ached for home, but all she had to look to was Roy. He was already staring straight at her when her eyes sought him out and she absently noticed that, unlike Maes, he’d sat on the other side of the table so that his back was to the wall and he could sit on the bench normally.

He met her gaze, gave her a smile, and mouthed  _ it’s okay _ .

She sucked in a breath and nodded. He was right. It would be fine. Her name would get called, she’d get sorted. Tomorrow, they’d start classes and she’d get to learn actual  _ magic _ , not alchemy. Alchemy had never interested her the way it had Roy, but magic? Learning about the barrier and a whole other world? Learning that  _ her _ world was a pocket dimension that had been birthed through magic and, slowly, bred out so much that most schools didn’t even bother to send representatives to deliver acceptance letters?

She had to know, she thought. Scared or not, she had to know about this world and the magic she had. What she could do. Her limitations.

She had to know what it meant for her going forward.

Her.

Roy.

Her mother.

Aunt Chris.

Her sisters.

“Gracia Wagner!” Headmistress Mole called and she looked at Roy once more before she stepped forward. There weren’t many first years left waiting to be sorted, she noticed. It was nearly over.

A sea of black robes under an enchanted ceiling and she was  _ part of this _ . Her eyes roamed, taking it all in from the new vantage point, and she barely had time to see Maes grin at her from the Hufflepuff table and give her two thumbs-up before the Hat was placed on her head and covered her eyes.

“Haven’t seen this many of you in a while,” a voice mused and her eyes widened. The whole time, she hadn’t heard the Hat talk, but if it was talking  _ now _ , that had to mean it was psychic, right? It was in her head? And what had it meant that many of them? People from Amestris?

She opened her mouth to ask, but she hadn’t heard anyone else talk to it and snapped her mouth shut before she could look stupid.

“I can hear you just fine,” it told her and it almost sounded amused. “Yes, child of Arthur, it’s been a long time since I had so many of you at once. And so different.” It hummed, contemplatively. “You’re eager, aren’t you? Ready to find everything both worlds have to offer. Fiercely loyal and braver than people give you credit for, but there’s a thirst for knowledge – to know everything you can get your hands on. That letter was a world on a silver platter for you.”

She thought she could feel herself blush, but she straightened her back in the same moment. Yes, she wanted to learn. There was too much out there to  _ not _ want to.

“Yes, I know just where to put you,” it said and she sucked in a breath. “RAVENCLAW!”

Cheers erupted and as the Hat was lifted off her head, she could see the table of blue and silver cheering for her, but it was Roy she heard above them all as he shouted a congratulations to her in Xingese. She flashed him a wide grin and hurried over towards the Ravenclaw table as he seemed to change his mind about where he’d chosen to sit. She reached her table and made her hellos as he circled around to the other side of the table so they could sit across the aisle from each other. She caught his hand across the gap.

“Didn’t go far,” she told him, suddenly feeling like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

He squeezed her hand once before he let it drop. “As if there was ever any doubt about where  _ you’d _ end up.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and twisted to sit properly on the bench, smiling at her housemates, and caught Maes’ eye across the room. She waved at him.

Slowly, the rest of the sorting finished until Helena Zabini got sorted into Slytherin and the Hat went still. Headmistress Mole set it back on the stool like it had been at the start and clapped her hands.

“Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” she announced and a few people cheered. “We eat!”

Food just  _ appeared _ on the table and her eyes went wide before her face split into a big grin.

Magic was  _ amazing _ .

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Be honest. How many of you actually went and tried to see if you noticed the click/popping noise when you go from breathing through your nose to breathing through your mouth?


End file.
